John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before we proceed to questions without notice, I have a comment about question time for the foreseeable future. Senators will be aware that today is the first day of operation of the new temporary order providing 30 seconds for the asking of supplementary questions, among other things. As it is not possible to set the clocks for 30 seconds, they will be set to one minute and stopped when they reach the 30-second mark. Other solutions are being examined, but it was not technically possible to make changes to the timing mechanism over the Christmas break. You will have to have a little patience with the Clerk at the table, who will be setting the clock. We will try to keep to the 30 seconds as best as we can.